Race to Witch Mountain DVD review
By Alexandra Heilbron on July 27, 2009 | 4 Comments
There’s a high demand for children’s movies these days, with G-Force (featuring talking guinea pigs) coming in strong and beating out Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for the number one spot at the box office this past weekend.
Disney is known for its fine family fare, but in the case of Race to Witch Mountain, the title pretty much says it all. It’s about a race to get away from bad guys. And the main character isn’t either of the two alien kids who need to get back to their spaceship, as was the case in the earlier classic Disney movies this one is based on (Escape to Witch Mountain and Return to Witch Mountain). The main character in this is Jack Bruno, played by Dwayne Johnson. He’s a disgruntled ex-con taxi cab driver based in Las Vegas. Two teens, Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig), hop into his cab and offer him $15k to get them out of Vegas, quick.
They have to retrieve some kind of high tech gadget that will allow their planet to thrive as Earth does. Unfortunately, the U.S. government witnessed the spaceship enter their air zone and are trying to capture the kids for experiments. A little more focus on the children would have made this more interesting. For instance, how old are they in human years? What is life on their planet like? What do they eat? Do they go to school? What are their hobbies? Do they have any powers other than the ones shown? Do they speak English on their planet? If not, how did they learn it? Sara and Seth seems like mini-adults — are all kids on their planet like that? And so on.
The actors all do a credible job, but there are frightening scenes, especially one in which a monster’s mask/helmet comes off, and underneath is the stuff of nightmares. There’s also plenty of violence, with Jack Bruno fighting off the bad guys. The highlight of the movie was the appearance of the former kid stars of the original movies – Kim Richards as a caring waitress named Tina and Iake Eissinmann as a small town sheriff. Both do great jobs with their small roles and show they haven’t lost any of the acting chops they showed as kids. Hopefully Disney noticed and gives them some more work.
Disappointingly, the DVD extras do not include interviews with the cast, though it would be interesting to hear from them – especially Richards and Eissinmann, who appear in the same scene, though their characters don’t interact. What was it like for them to reunite? What was it like for the new kids to meet the “old kids?”
However, there are some interesting bloopers and deleted bits that give a glimpse behind the scenes. ~Alexandra Heilbron
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Recommended for children 12 to 16
Release date: August 4, 2009
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I love his smile..
hahahahahhaa!!!
ummmm he not smiling carol.
in my head he is, he has the most gorgeous smile, and his eyes light up when he smiles.